492 THEOSOPHY EXPLAINED

by an intellect refined and spiritualised, and by aspirations
reaching ever towards the Divine. The golden stars
which ascend from the upper part of the oval proclaim the
activity of high spiritual aspiration, and this upward
rushing is itself a channel through which divine power
descends upon him and radiating out through that mental
body reaches many who are not yet strong enough to
receive it directly.

THE ASTRAL BODY OF THE DEVELOPED MAN
(FRONTISPIECE)

This astral body agrees closely with its mental, though
its colours are somewhat naturally coarser. Allowing
for the difference between what may be called the octaves
of the colour—between the hues belonging to the astral
and lower mental planes—it is almost a reproduction of
the mental body and indicates that the man has his
desires thoroughly under the control of the mind and is no
longer liable to be swept away from the firm base of
reason by wild surges of emotion.

ASTRAL BODY IN INTENSE ANGER (PAGE 29i)

This is the case of a person who is absolutely trans-
ported with rage and, having for the time being utterly
lost control of himself, is capable of murder or of the most
atrocious cruelties.

Here the astral body of the man is taken as a basis or
background, though during the passage of that fit of
passion that background is temporarily obscured by the
rush of feeling, by strong and vivid thoughts of malice and
ill-will. Those thoughts express themselves as well-defined